The unemployment rate was 11.8% in the country the first quarter this year, from 11.9% in Q4 2022 and against him 13.8% in the first quarter last year. THE the number of unemployed amounted to 550,535 people, presenting a decrease of 1.4% compared to the previous quarter and a decrease of 14.9% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. However, 290.132 unemployed (rate 52.7% of the total) they are long-term unemployedas they have been looking for work for a year or more.

Also according to ELSTAT’s quarterly labor force survey:

The unemployment rate for women is 15.4% compared to 9% for men.

Age wisethe higher rates they are recorded in the 15-19 years old (33.2%) and 20-24 years old (26.1%) groups. They are followed by the ages of 25-29 years (19.3%), 30-44 years (12.5%), 65 years and over (8.8%) and 45-64 years (8%).

At the level of regions of the country, in the first three places are the Ionian Islands (20.4%), the South Aegean (18.1%) and Western Macedonia (15.4%). They are followed by Central Macedonia (15.3%), Epirus (15.1%), Thessaly (14.6%), Crete (14.4%), Central Greece (13.1%), Eastern Macedonia- Thrace (12.5%), Northern Aegean (12.4%), Peloponnese (10.4%), Western Greece (9.9%) and Attica (8.1%).

From the data of the survey it appears that the main reasons why the unemployed stopped working it is either because their work was of limited duration and ended (36%) or because they were fired (15.8%). The percentage of the unemployed who have not worked in the past (young unemployed) is 21.1%.

The majority of unemployed (52.7%) have been looking for work for a year or more (long-term unemployed). Also, the majority of the unemployed has completed up to secondary education (60.4%). The percentage of the unemployed who declare that they are not registered with DYPA amounts to 19.7%, while the percentage of those who declare that they receive an allowance or assistance from DYPA amounts to 17.5%.

The number of employees amounted to 4,098,011 people, showing a decrease by 0.9% compared to the previous quarter and an increase of 1.3% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

The largest percentage of employed people work as employees (68.8%), while the percentage of the self-employed without staff is also significant (20.3%). The part-time rate stands at 8.4%, while the percentage of people who have temporary work at 6.5%. Part-time employment shows an increase of 2.4% compared to the previous quarter and a decrease of 5.8% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Temporary employment has increased by 2.3% compared to the previous quarter and by 16.2% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

The professions that gather the largest percentage of employed people they are the professionals (22.5%) and those employed in the provision of services and sellers (21.5%). Compared to the previous quarter, the biggest increase is observed among skilled craftsmen and those practicing related professions (2.7%), while the largest decrease is observed among office workers (8.3%). Compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year, the largest increase is observed among unskilled workers, manual workers and small professionals (10.6%), while the largest decrease is observed among office workers (11.3%).

If we examine the evolution of the distribution of the number of people employed in broad occupational groups, it is observed thatsince the first quarter of 2012 the proportion of people employed in low-skilled non-manual occupations has been increasing – a trend that reverses to some extent from 2021. The same period the proportion of people employed in skilled manual occupations decreases, which however shows an increase from 2021. The proportion in highly skilled non-manual occupations follows an increase, while the proportion employed in elementary occupations remains relatively stable after 2012. The percentage of people employed in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishing showing a downward trend since 2014, with an upward trend in the last 3 years.

The largest percentage of the employed (52.8%) state that worked 40-47 hours in the reference week, while a significant percentage (17.7%) stated that they worked 48 or more hours. The majority of employed people (80.1%) state that they worked normal hours during the reference week. 9.4% of those employed say they would like to work more hours, 3.7% are part-time underemployed who would like to work more and could start working more within the next two weeks, and 1, 5% have more than one job.

Persons not included in the labor force, or “persons outside the labor force” (i.e. people neither working nor looking for work), they came up to 4,392,839 people. In particular, people outside the labor force under the age of 75 amounted to 3,168,769 people. Their percentage increased by 1.2% compared to the previous quarter and by 0.4% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

The majority of people outside the labor force aged 15-74, have either never worked before (45.6%) or more than 8 years have passed since they stopped their last job (23%). Of those who worked in the last 8 years, the largest proportion stopped working because they retired (54%), or because their work was short-term and ended (21%).

Finally, 90.4% of of people outside the labor force says they don’t want to work. 1.6% say they are looking for work but are not immediately available to take it, while 4.2% say they are available to take work immediately but are not looking.